Strike closes local schools

Local teachers on one-day strike

Chris Fell Photo

Teachers from Beaver Valley Community School, Meaford Community School and St. Vincent/Euphrasia Elementary School were walking the picket lines in Meaford on Wednesday, December 19. The one-day strike was called to protest the McGuinty government's Bill 115.

Elementary schools in Meaford, Thornbury and across the Bluewater School Board were quiet on Wednesday, December 19 due to a one-day strike by local teachers.
Teachers across the Bluewater Board walked off the job on Wednesday, December 19 in protest of the McGuinty government's Bill 115. Teachers across the province have been engaging in one-day rotating strikes to protest the bill.
Teachers from Beaver Valley Community School, Meaford Community School and St. Vincent/Euphrasia School were picketing outside Meaford Community School on Wednesday morning.
Teachers walking the line were in good spirits and were pleased by the support they had received from the community. Local teachers carried signs protesting the provincial government's actions on Bill 115. Several teachers walked with their signs into downtown Meaford to draw attention to their protest.
Nancy Lawler, President of the Bluewater Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) was in Meaford walking the picket lines with local teachers.
"This is our day of protest against Bill 115. Everybody is in great spirits. There has been lots of support from people. Things are going well," she said.
Lawler said across the Bluewater Board there were approximately 670 teachers on strike on Wednesday with another 250 occasional teachers joining them.
Vice-President Bluewater ETFO James McCormack said the protest is about the McGuinty government's Bill 115, which teachers say strips away their collective bargaining rights.
"(The Bill) restricts our collective bargaining rights. We can't get a collective bargaining agreement because of the Bill," he said.
McCormack said the strike protest is not an action against local school boards and it is not about money.
"We prefer to be in the schools with the children," he said. "This is not a matter of money. We have to have free collective bargaining," he explained.
Lawler said teachers understand the situation the government is in with regards to its deficit and debt.
"We recognize the position the government is in, in terms of finances. We're not being unreasonable," she said.
The highly controversial Bill 115 gives Education Minister Laurel Broten the ability to impose new collective agreements on teachers in the New Year. In the Bill, the Minister also can end strikes by teachers.
McCormack said Bill 115 has left teachers across the province confused and upset at how they have been treated by a government that was once friendly.
"It's left all of us really shaken. We have had a decade of positive relationships and now it's dictatorial and bullying. It's beyond any of us. It doesn't make sense and that's not the way we teach our children to resolve things," he said.
Both Lawler and McCormack said they have no doubts that teachers would have a new collective agreement with the Bluewater Board if not for Bill 115.
"Locally we're making progress. The only thing standing in the way is the Bill. We have a great relationship with our Board. Our Board has passed resolution asking the government to rescind the Bill. They see it as a stumbling block," she explained.
McCormack stressed that it was local teachers that drove the decision to protest the Bill with a one-day strike.
"Our membership wanted to have a say. It was not the 'union bosses' driving the bus here. Teachers in Bluewater voted 97 per cent to take strike action," he said. "It's the best shot we have. This is the last thing we have available to us before December 31," he said.